Coming from the earthquake-prone country, first thing came into my mind when seeing the work is, this can’t be done in Japan – the rock on the top would fall and could kill someone in case of an earthquake, even a mild one.

Schwitters in Britain(January 30 – May 12) at Tate Britain is the major exhibition to examine the late work of German artist Kurt Schwitters, one of the major artists of European Modernism, who worked in several genres and media including Dada, Constructivism, Surrealism, poetry, sound, painting, sculpture, graphic design, typography and installation art. Focusing on his British period from his arrival in Britain as a refugee in 1940 until his death in 1948, the exhibition showcases over 150 collages, often incorporated fragments from packaging and newspapers, as well as sculptures and paintings. Schwitters invented the concept of Merz, ‘the combination, for artistic purposes of all conceivable materials’, and pioneered use of found objects and everyday materials in abstract collage, installation, poetry and performance. His work has influenced later British artists such as Richard Hamilton, Eduardo Paolozzi and Damien Hirst.

Schwitters was forced to flee Germany in 1937, when his work was condemned as ‘degenerate’ by Nazi government and first settled in Norway for three years. He escaped to Britain in 1940 after the Nazi occupation of Norway but had been detained as an enemy alien until his release in 1941. Then he became involved with the London art scene, engaging with British artists and critics such as Ben Nicholson and Herbert Read. In 1945 Schwitters relocated to the Lake District, and began to incorporate natural objects into his work. The move also culminated in the creation of his sculpture and installation, the Merz Barn, a continuation of his Hanover architectural construction Merzbau. The exhibition ends with commissions by artists Adam Chodzko and Laure Prouvost made in collaboration with Grizedale Arts to explore the Schwitters’ legacy.

Schwitters work using muted colours is rather understated and somehow gloomy, probably reflected the atmosphere of the war time and his life experience as a refugee. Completely oposite to the ambience of the Lichtenstein exhibition. He must be a great artist and a pioneer of modern art, and probably many people love the exhibition, but I don’t feel anything by looking at his famous collages, though I like his conventional portraits and landscape paintings (such as in FT and Guardian). His work is just not my cup of tea…

「I am not Me, the Horse is not Mine」は、ケントリッジがデザインと演出を手がけた、ニューヨーク・メトロポリタン歌劇場の上演作品・ドミートリイ・ショスタコーヴィチのオペラ「 The Nose（鼻）」から派生した作品で、Tanksの1室のぐるりの壁に、1920〜30年代のソビエト連邦の映像やロシア・アヴァンギャルドの悲惨な結末など、ロシア・モダニズムをテーマにした8つのビデオ（各6分）を同時投影したもの。ロシア構成主義のグラフィックデザイナーの幾何学的抽象作品のパロディーである、切り絵風の人物を使ったアニメーションや、ロシア革命を含む1920〜30年代の写真・映像と、次から次へと変わっていくスクリーンは、見ていて楽しいけれど、正直意味不明。なのでテレグラフ紙の記事を読んでみたが、それでも分からない。意味を考えずに鑑賞するのが正解かも。

“I am not Me, the Horse is not Mine” started out as the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Dmitry Shostakovich’s opera, The Nose, which Kentridge designed and directed. It is an eight-channel video installation, projected simultaneously across the walls. Each 6-minute film is played on a continuous loop and contributes layers to a story that references Russian modernism, from Soviet film of the 1920s and 1930s to the calamitous end of the Russian avant-garde. The images change rapidly between animation featuring paper cutout of human figures, parodying the geometric abstraction of Russian Constructivist graphic designers, and old photos and films from the 1920s and 1930s, including of Russian Revolution. It was fun to look at, but I didn’t get what it means. I read the Telegraph article, and I still don’t get it…

The special V&A map for LDF was hard to figure out, even to museum staffs, and it cost me a lot of effort to find an each work. There was no theme or direction for those displays, but what I liked the most was “Mimicry Chairs“, total of eleven installations using white transparent metal chairs, created by Japanese design firm “nendo“. The chairs were placed in the main entrance as well as ten other locations in the museum including galleries, staircases and corridors. Unfortunately, sitting on the chairs was not allowed, but those installations perfectly fit in an each space and created good harmony with surrounding artworks and objects.

Tate Modern‘s THE TANKS is new and first museum galleries dedicated to live art, performance, installation and film, opened on July 18 this year as a part of the London 2012 Festival and the museum’s expansion project phase I launched this summer. The 30-metre width & 7-metre height circular oil tanks, unused since the former Bankside Power station was turned into the art gallery, were transformed into this unique art space.

From July 28 to October 28, The Tanks is hosting 15-week festival programme of international performance, film, talks and live events, alongside works from the collection by pioneers of social performance (The Christal Quilt by Suzanne Lacy: 3rd photo from the top) and expanded cinema (Live Music by Lis Rhodes: 4th photo), as well as a major new commission from South Korean artist Sung Hwan Kim (1st photo below), who combines video and performance art, collecting images from Seoul, Amsterdam and New York. →full program

Inside was dark with no windows, and I felt like I was in a bunker. I am not a big fan of live art and film, as you usually can’t watch an artwork from the start unless you are lucky, and I have to check the schedule in advance for some works. On the day, we missed the performance of “Fase: Four Movements to the Music of Steve Reich” by Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, because it was full. It was a big disappointment, because we saw the performance Barbican Centre in the past and I loved it. But the concept of The Tanks is interesting, and I like Live Music by Lis Rhodes – it’s fun to see an interaction of constantly changing stripes projected on the screen and silhouettes of a person passing or standing in front of it.

Heatherwick Studio is a London-based design and architecture studio, founded in 1994 by Thomas Heatherwick, who is an English industrial designer known for innovative use of engineering and materials in public monuments and sculptures. It is said that Sir Terence Conran called Heatherwick as the “Leonardo da Vinci of our times”. It is a bit of an exaggeration, but his works are creative and fun. The porter gallery where the exhibition is taken place, is too small for his large scale works, even for its prototype and photos, and a bit claustrophobic.

展覧会では動物死体のインスタレーションの他、白いキャンバスに様々な色の水玉を規則的に配置した「spot paintings」、回転する円形のキャンバスに描いた「spin paintings」、そして薬局を再現した「Pharmacy」、蝶をモチーフにしたカラフルな絵画、タバコの吸い殻を使ったインスタレーション等々、ハーストの代表作が一挙展示されている。ユニークなのは、たくさんの生きた蝶を展示室内に放したインスタレーション「In and Out of Love (White Paintings and Live Butterflies)」（1991年）。展示室は温室になっており中は蒸し暑く、蝶が飛び交っている。でも、死んでいる蝶もいて、ちょっと可哀想。

ダミアン・ハーストの作品はあちこちで目にするので食傷気味、大きな期待をせず見に行ったけれど、これだけの数の作品が一堂に揃っているとやはり圧巻。大きな作品も多く見応えがある。ただ、動物愛護主義者じゃないけれど、牛や羊、サメのホルマリン漬け（科学博物館じゃないんだから）やハエがたかった動物の死体（かなり生臭いので、鼻の利く人は注意）、煙臭い吸い殻の展示は意味不明でいただけない。残念だったのは、待ち時間が長過ぎて、地上階の小室に置かれた「For the Love of God」を見られなかったこと。しばらく前、この作品に似た、ダイアモンドっぽい石で飾られた頭蓋骨がガラスケースに入れられて、オールドストリート近くの建物から運び出されるのを見た。警備員も付いていなかったので本物じゃないとは思うけど。

The most prominentmember of the Young British Artists (YBAs) and best known British modern artist, Damien Hirst‘s major retrospective, ‘Damien Hirst‘ is currently running at Tate Modern until September 9th. His talent was founded by Charles Saatchi, a co-founder of global advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi and famous art collector who opened the Saatchi Gallery. He became famous for a ‘death’ theme series of preserved dead animals, which caused the sensation to the world of modern art. Some people love him, and some others hate him – but he won some prestigious art prizes and now he established a status of one of the world’s leading artists whose works are in high demand, both for collections and for investment, and are sold for millions of pounds (though he has been accused of plagiarising several times since 1999). His wealth was valued at £215m in the 2010 Sunday Times Rich List, which made him Britain’s wealthiest artist.

The exhibition gathers Hirst’s major artworks together with above mentioned “dead animals”, such as “spin paintings” created on a spinning circular surface, “spot paintings” with rows of randomly coloured circles, installation of pharmacy recreation, colourful paintings with butterfly motif, and installation of cigarette butts. The unique one is “In and Out of Love (White Paintings and Live Butterflies)” (1991), a temperature-controlled room (hot & humid) with dozens of live butterflies flying all over. It was sad to see some dead butterflies, though.

Before going the exhibition, I didn’t expect much as I saw his works everywhere and thought it was too much. However, seeing a large amount of his works in one place was quite impressive and actually I enjoyed the show – though I hate the smell of cow head full of flies (really nauseating!) and believe that installations of stinky cigarette butts as well as dead animals like shark, sheep and cow in immersed in formaldehyde (it’s not a science museum!) are bad taste and pointless. One regret is that I missed to see “For the Love of God“ exhibited in a small hut located on the ground floor, because of a long queue. A while ago (few years ago?), I saw someone carrying similar looking diamond-decorated human scull in a glass case, out of one building near Old Street. I am not sure if that was ‘it’, but I doubt as there was no security guard around…